The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1887-08-15
MR.. DEXTER.
BY HARRIET PRESCOTT sPoFFoRD.
CHsrper's Bazar.l


beautiful creature; and if we weren't obliged
to laugh at ourselves in spite of ourselves the
moment she shut the door, after kissing each
of us, and went out and left us, in her gentle
proud fashion, looking blankly in each 9TH
er's faces. We had been talking and comb.
ing out our hair, we three girls, Iris and
Prim, the twins, and l, their younger sister
There's no denying it, Prim, he's an ex
cellent MATCH" Iris had said, half an houl
before. "He belongs to one of the oldes
and best families in the country"
"And one of the wealthiest," said Prim
(which is quite as much to the purpose. Yol
can't live on the bones of your ancestors"
well, ancestors look down from the wall
of every room in Poindexter place. And i
is very comfortable, and gives you quite tn,
sense Of being better than the best to have
such witnesses to your claims as those-un
doubted ones too, bought at no auction sale
And then, although it's not been opened tC
guests since the old Poindexter left thi:
sphere, the city residence is perfect treas.
ure-house."
"How do you know"
"0h, I've taken pains to find out-Quite
accidentally, of course, you may be sure. 1t
is just full of old Turkey rugs worth three
and four thousand dollars apiece"
Looking ready to fall to pieces, sup
pose"
'And Gobelin tapestries, and old hammered
silver, and Seyres, and porcelains, and
bronzes, and wonderful glass, and picture
gallery. Oh, there's nothing like its dim
ria nd I I,o
a very agreeable thing to queen it in such a
house as that, especially with an adoring
husband And somehow never look at Mr..
Poindexter without feeling sure that he will
love the woman he makes his wife with his
whole heart and SOUL"
you're so romautic, Iris!' said I.
Il must confess he's little too high and
mighty, little too stately and intellectual
and all that"
Hes going to be Senator of the United
States, the proudest position ON earth, es.
pecially when its our Senator, and he ought
to be high and mighty" said Prim. "But
you'll never be familiar with him, and it's
shocking to be afraid Of your husband
afraid of him!' said |. "Why, he's aw-
fully handsome, and he's not 40."
But then" Iris went on, 1--WE don't know.
He mightn't be so very stately and and in
tellectual if he ever had chance to unbend,
II mamma wasn't always by. He might let
himself down from that level and take a lit
tie interest in agreeable tri1es. I've no doubt
that if mamma sat in another room, as other
peoples mothers do, we should find that he
could laugh and jest as gayly as Harry Free
man. l saw him looking at Sue as II he rel
ished her laughing ways the other day. These
grave dons like to be amused. But there !!
he never gets a chance; mammals always
here, with her absurd notions about chap
eronage. And then, too, don't think she's
ever found out that she's not young now.
None OF the other girls mothers think of al
ways hanging round the way she does, and
she always keeps the conversation at such
heights, and there's so much majesty and
manners and all, that he never has an OPP
p0rtunity really to know us and see what
there is of us, And for my part [ can't
quite make up my mind which of us three it
is he really comes to see-at least couldn't
tell to-day. Sometimes I've thought he likes
Sues spirits, and then I've been sure it's my
eyes, and now / see plainly that it's your de-
mureness that's SO taking"
''Do yon know" said Prim, sit doesn't
quite suit my notion, this sort of talk-as If
we were waiting for the sultan to. throw his
handkerchief"
"But such sultan Not flaw about him,
heard some one say, And he looks like
what he is, the very soul of knightly chival-
ny. There isn't man in all our set that
compares with nina perfect prince. And
then the Poindexter diamonds, Print"
"Oh, it won't do to talk so," said Prim
''As for to-day, it means nothing. Perhaps
he only comes here because 1t is a pleasant
place to pass the time. He said something
once about the atmosphere Of mammals
drawing room"
"Oh, of course! He has to kow-tow to the
mammas, and say things like that if he wants
their interest with the daughters. They all
do, always"
''But L like that atmosphere too"
Certainly you do You're Prim."
81 must acknowledge" maintained Prim,
THAT it's always pleasant to me to be where
mamma is"
Except when Mr.. Poindexter comes. And
then i wish she was-further."
mo; it's contenting to look at her. She's
an object of pleasure to the eyes. What
eyes hers are, too-those soft blue gray eyes,
like great jewels. half yelled in their black
her figure, and the way she walks she is like
some one you read of; she's my ideal of
womanp
YOU'RE her darling. She had you in pos
session an hour before she had me, that's the
reason. Still, 1t is true that If we only had
mammals shape, and her complexion, and
her eyes-but then, she's not done with her
eyes yet, said Iris, with satirical empha-
sis
swell, there are not many girls who have
such mother, anyway.
Il should hope not" said Iris. "Its
mighty uncomfortable having person who's
not too old to be your companion. and who
yet holds such authority over you as to tell
you when to go to bed
why, Iris, l shouldn't think you were
fond of mamma at ALL"
Fond of her? I'm as fond as most girls
are But mamma Is $3.50 exasperatingly
young, 1t really isn't respectable" And just
then the door opened and mamma came in.
But may as well tell you here that
couldn't help agreeing with Iris if it was I'M
Mamma
as for that's being undutiful, you couldn't
feel the sense of duty to any one so entirely
your companion, except now and then when
who puts on her imperial garments, To be
sure, she was only II years older than the
youngest OF us, silly as that was. But it's
the truth. And was the Youngest, and just
IL myself. But it did use to seem to us that
being our mother, like all other girls's moth
ers, she was already as old as any mother,
too old to think of without disagrceablc SEN
Stations, and we wondered what she had to
look forward to, and sometimes we pitied
her little, feeling as if really she had moth
ing but the end of all things before her, and
that all the happiness she could hope for lay
in our affairs, We regretted that her hair
wasn't gray, just as a matter of propriety.
1t seemed an assumption of youth, an affec-
tation, that she should still have her own
teeth, and just as If made of nice pearl, too.
And her complexion was absurd; everybody
must suppose she painted, with that rich col
VI dhu why III IuO NOliu Sut SLlll WduItQ
pretty things to wear passed our understand
lng-at least, you know, lris's and mine :;
Prlm never quite sided with us, although
sometimes she had reason to be little dis
turbed about it all herself. When Uncle Mel
Vyn sent home to mamma that white crepe
shawl, lovely as a cloud, l felt sure that if he
mad only known how we had grown up he
never would have sent 1t to mamma, almost
an elderly person with one foot in the grave
Somehow Iris and didn't like to say a great
deal about it, but it was really painful to us
that mamma had such gay and youthful man
ners that she laughed like chime of bells
quite as ii she had never grown old that she
absorbed so much of the conversation when
callers came. We did wish she could conduct
herself in way more becoming her years,
and we resolved that when we were nearly
80, as she was, we would try and remember
the dignity that ought to come at that period
OF life, especially after having lost husband
and being the mother of three full-grown
daughters. And then, too, it really was
mortlfylng when new acquaintance looked
their surprise at mamma, with her three
great girls, to have to let them form their
own conJectures about her people as being
low bred and ignorant, seeing that they had
married ner off at IA, and she had been a
widow since she was II. Somehow it seemed
as If they must have been backwoods saw
ages to have allowed such thing, instead of
being educated and well-to-do as they were.
Really mamma was ashamed of it herself
perhaps all the more so that her husband had
tnTned out tyrant, whose death in three
gears alter her marriage was a relief. You
can judge what tyrant by his INSISTING on
calling tile twins PrlmaVera and Iris Rut